Jets coach suspended by league

Randy Prokos said he enjoyed working with youth football players more than the professional football players he privately trains.

Just five days after winning a Super Bowl with the 95-pound Boca Jets on Nov. 10, the first-year coach learned the league sacked him for at least a year for failing to listen to league officials and move to his team to its assigned end zone prior to the start of the game. The start of the game was delayed by 15 minutes because of the incident, according to league officials.

"The way we have been handled and treated in our own organization, the way we were treated by the officials, and the league in general, it doesn't surprise me one bit," said Prokos, who was thrown out of a game earlier in the year for inciting his team. "We volunteer our time and to take the kids as far as we did with what we were up against, it took a lot of effort and energy, and it seemed like every step of the way someone tried to knock us down."

American Youth Football League President Laney Stearns said the league bylaws state teams can't cut in front of the other team's bench, and teams can't come out of the same end zone.

The AYFL bylaws state the home team (higher seed) comes out of the west end zone and the visiting team (lower seed) comes out of the east end zone. Prokos had his team lined up in the west end zone and when PPO arrived at the same end zone, league officials approached him and asked him to move. Prokos alleges that he was spun around and touched inappropriately by officials.

"We have been expelling coaches for years if they can't conform to league rules and bylaws, but it is the first time we expelled a Super Bowl winner," Stearns said. "It wasn't just one league rep who went up to him and he disrespected. It was the second, third, fourth and the fifth. Then [former Boca Jets football commissioner, and AYFL life member] Steve Mummaw talked him, and he didn't listen and then I spoke to him. He was still going to take his team out from the wrong end zone, until I stepped in front of him and said, 'Coach, you have to go to the other end.' He then said to his team, 'Let's go; we are going to finish this on the field.' We want coaches to set good examples for their teams, and, at this point in his career, he's not a good fit for our program."

Stearns said Prokos had already committed a Level 3 offense for his ejection from a game earlier in the season and had to sit out the regular season meeting with PPO, a 7-6 loss.

Stearns said a coach receiving a second Level 3 offense within a two-year period is an automatic expulsion. Prokos' actions prior to the Super Bowl was a Level 4 offense, which carried an automatic expulsion from the league.

"We will try and appeal that," said Boca Jets commissioner Tolliver Miller. "He has done a phenomenal job with a large group of at-risk kids with various personalities. To him, it is all about the kids, but we also have to balance the bylaws and the administrative issues that come along with it. When it all came down to it, he was told multiple times by multiple individuals of authority, and he was wrong."

"This is an issue of a coach not wanting to follow the rules," said Steve Mummaw. "I was absolutely shocked that he was allowed to coach the Super Bowl game. It was the Randy show, not the Boca Jets show. It is a sad situation for this and a black mark against the program."